IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

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Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 30
EFFECT OF BIO-ENZYME STABILIZATION ON UNCONFINED
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF EXPANSIVE SOIL

Puneet Agarwal
1
, Suneet Kaur
2

1
M.Tech. Scholar, Geotechnical Engineering, Maulana Azad national Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India
2
Associate Professor, Civil Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, India

Abstract
Engineers often face the problem of constructing facilities on or with soils, which do not posses sufficient strength to support the loads
imposed upon them either during construction or during the service life of the structure. Vast areas of India consist of Black Cotton
Soil which has high clay content, low strength and minimal bearing capacity. The poor engineering performance of such soils has
forced Engineers device cost effective and ecofriendly methods for improving the engineering properties of poor soils. As the
conventional soil stabilizers like gravel, sand, etc. are depleting and becoming expensive day by day at a very rapid pace, it becomes
necessary to look towards for alternative ecofriendly stabilizers as their substitute. Recently many Bio-enzymes have emerged as cost
effective stabilizers for soil stabilization. One such bio-enzyme, Terrazyme, has been used in the present work to study its effect on the
Unconfined Compressive strength of the Black Cotton soil. It has been found that Terrazyme treated Black Cotton soil shows
significant increase in Unconfined Compressive strength with longer curing period.

Keywords: Bio-enzyme, Terrazyme, Soil Stabilization and Black Cotton Soil.
----------------------------------------------------------------------***------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. INTRODUCTION
A large part of central India and a portion of South India are
covered with Black Cotton soils. These soils are residual
deposits formed from basalt or trap rocks. Black cotton soils
are clays of high plasticity. They contain essentially the clay
mineral montmorillonite, which is the most unstable clay
mineral, thus the soils have high shrinkage and swelling
characteristics. The sharing strength of the soil is extremely
low, is highly compressible and has very low bearing capacity.
It is very difficult to work with this soil, as do not posses
sufficient strength to support the loads imposed upon them
either during construction or during the service life of the
structure. For better performance of structures built on such
soils, the performance characteristics of such soils need to be
improved. The poor engineering performance of such soils has
forced Engineers to attempt to improve the engineering
properties of poor quality soils. There are various methods that
could be used to improve the performance of poor quality
soils. These methods range from replacing it with a good
quality soil to methods that involve complex chemical process.
The choice of a particular method depends mainly on the type
of soil to be improved, its characteristics and the type and
degree of improvement desired in a particular application.
Recently bio-enzymes have emerged as a new chemical for
soil stabilization. Bio-enzymes are chemical, organic, and
liquid concentrated substances which are used to improve the
stability of soil sub-grade for pavement structures. Bio-
Enzyme is convenient to use, safe, effective and dramatically
improves road quality.

1.1 Terrazyme, a Bio-Enzymatic Soil Stabilizer
TerraZyme is a natural, non-toxic, non-corrosive and non-
inflammable liquid, produced by formulating vegetable
extracts. Organic enzymes come in liquid form. They are
perfectly soluble in water, brown in color with smell of
molasses. Their aroma has no effect. Neither gloves nor masks
are required during handling. TerraZyme is specially
formulated to modify the engineering properties of soil. They
require dilution in water before application. TerraZyme when
added to water and mixed with soil alters the engineering
properties depending upon the type of the soil and dosage of
enzyme. These enzymes are liquid additives, which act on the
soil to reduce the voids between soil particles and minimize
absorbed water in the soil for maximum compaction. The
enzymes react with the organic matter (humid matter) in the
soil to form cementatious material. This decreases the swelling
capacity of the soil particles and reduces permeability. The
application of TerraZyme enhances weather resistance and
increases load bearing capacity of soils. These features are
particularly evident in fine-grained soils such as clay in which
the formulation affects the swelling and shrinking behavior.
The reaction is at micron level and the presence of finely
divided humid matter and clay-sized particles is essential.
Presence of clay is essential as the bonds formed bind this size
of particles. The formulation has the ability to change the
matrix of the soil so that after compaction the soil loses its
ability to reabsorb water and the mechanical benefits of
compaction are not lost even after water is reapplied to the
compacted soil. Once the enzyme reacts with the soil, the
change is permanent and the product is bio-degradable.
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Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 31
1.2 Mechanism of Soil Stabilization by Bio-Enzyme
In clay water mixture positively charged ions (cat-ions) are
present around the clay particles, creating a film of water
around the clay particle that remains attached or adsorbed on
the clay surface. The adsorbed water or double layer gives
clay particles their plasticity. In some cases the clay can swell
and the size of double layer increases, but it can be reduced by
drying. Therefore, to truly improve the soil properties, it is
necessary to permanently reduce the thickness of double layer.
Cat-ion exchange processes can accomplish this. By utilizing
fermentation processes specific micro-organisms can produce
stabilizing enzyme in large quantity. These soil-stabilizing
enzymes catalyze the reactions between the clay and the
organic cat-ions and accelerate the cat-ionic exchange without
becoming part of the end product.



TerraZyme replaces adsorbed water with organic cations, thus
neutralizing the negative charge on a clay particle. The
organic cations also reduce the thickness of the electrical
double layer. This allows TerraZyme treated soils to be
compacted more tightly together.



TerraZyme resists being replaced by water, thus reducing the
tendency of some clay to swell.



TerraZyme promotes the development of cementatious
compounds using the following, general reaction:



2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Lacuoture and Gonzalez (1995)

conducted a comprehensive
study of the TerraZyme soil stabilizer product and its
effectiveness on sub-base and sub-grade soils. The reactions of
the soils treated with the enzyme was observed and recorded
and compared to the untreated control samples. The variation
in properties was observed over a short period only and it was
found that in cohesive soils there was no major variation in
properties during the early days but the soil showed improved
performance progressively. Bergmann (2000) concluded
through studies that Bio-Enzymes need some clay content to
strengthen the soils. It was observed that at least 2% clay is
needed for successful stabilization whereas 10 to 15% clay
gave very good results. Shukla et al. (2003) used Bio-Enzymes
to stabilize five different types of soil ranging from low clay
content to very high clay content, engineering properties and
strength characteristics were determined and it was found that
there is little to high improvement in physical properties. Little
improvement could be due to soil constituent, which has low
reactivity with Bio-Enzymes. There was improvement in CBR
and unconfined compression strength of soils like silty soil to
sandy soil. An increase of 65 to 252% in UCS value was
observed after 4 weeks of curing. Pavement design thickness
also reduces to 25 to 40 percent. Moreover, in case of scarcity
of granular material, only stabilized surface with thin
bituminous surfacing can fulfill the pavement design
requirement. Sharma (2006)

has conducted laboratory studies
on use of bio-enzyme stabilization of three types of soils
namely clay of high plasticity (CH), clay of low plasticity
(CL) and silt of low plasticity (ML). It was found that the CH
soil had an increase in CBR value with reduction in saturation
moisture from 40 to 21% after 4 weeks of stabilization. Also it
was found that there was 100% increase in unconfined
compression strength. Shankar et al. (2009) studied the effect
of different dosages of Bio-Enzymes on Lateritic soil of
Dakshina Kannada (district of India), having liquid limit and
IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

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Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 32
Plasticity Index more than 25% and 6% respectively. Tests
were conducted on lateritic soil by adding different
percentages of sand as well. They concluded that there is
medium improvement in physical properties of lateritic soil.
Therefore it was suggested that effect of Bio-Enzyme on soil
should be examined in laboratory before actual field
application. Higher dosage (200ml/2m3 of soil) produced
300% increase in CBR, 450% in unconfined compressive
strength and permeability was reduced by 42% after four
weeks of curing. It was also observed that enzyme is not
effective for cohesion less soil. Venkatasubramanian &
Dhinakaran (2011) conducted tests on three soils with varied
properties and different dosages of Bio-Enzyme. Three soils
had liquid limits of 28, 30 and 46% and plasticity index of 6, 5
and 6%. Increase in unconfined compressive strength after 4
weeks of curing was reported as 246 to 404%.

3. EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
The materials used for the tests include the Black cotton soil
and TerraZyme (Bio-Enzyme). The Black cotton soil obtained
from the field was tested in the laboratory for Unconfined
Compressive Strength. The Unconfined Compressive Strength
was evaluated by stabilization with variable dosages of
enzyme (0.0, 0.25ml, 0.5ml, 0.75ml, 1.0ml, 2.0ml, 3.0ml, and
4.0ml/per 5kg of soil) for one and seven days of curing. The
specimen was prepared and kept in desecrator to retain
moisture of the sample so that reaction between soil particle
and TerraZyme may be continued. The test results have been
given in table 1.

Table -1: UCS values (kN/m
2
) of soil treated with enzyme.


The percentage increase in UCS with the increase in dosage of
Terrazyme (from 0.25ml upto 4ml/5kg of soil) for curing
periods of one and seven days are shown in Figure 1 & Figure
2 respectively. The relative increase in UCS value from one to
seven day of curing is shown in figure 3.

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
80
100
120
140
160
180
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

i
n
c
r
e
a
s
e

i
n

U
C
S

(
%
)
Dosage of Terrazyme (ml/5kg of soil)

Fig 1: Percentage increase in U.C.S. after 1 day of curing.

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

i
n
c
r
e
a
s
e

i
n

U
.
C
.
S

(
%
)
Dosage of Terrazyme (ml/5kg of soil)

Fig 2: Percentage increase in U.C.S. after 7 day of curing.



DOSAGE
(ml of Enzyme
/5kg of soil)

UCS
(kN/m2)
Curing
Period
1 Day
Curing Period
7 Day
Untreated 690
0.25 1223 1471
0.50 1487 1588
0.75 1567 1718
1.00 1659 1853
2.00 1789 1937
3.00 1874 2011
4.00 1948 2075
IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

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Volume: 03 Issue: 05 | May-2014, Available @ http://www.ijret.org 33
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e

i
n
c
r
e
a
s
e

i
n

U
C
S

(
%
)
Dosage of Terrazyme (ml/5kg of soil)

Fig 3: Relative increase in U.C.S. from 1 to 7 days of curing.

Figure 1 & 2 clearly shows that the rate of increase of U.C.S.
drops significantly after 1ml, and from figure 3 it can be
observed that the relative rate of increase in the UCS value
from 1 to 7 days of curing is maximum at Terrazyme dosage
of 1ml. Thus keeping economic criteria (getting maximum
strength at minimum cost) in mind the optimum dosage of
Terrazyme for improving the UCS of Black Cotton soil is
about 1ml/5kg of soil.

4. CONCLUSIONS
Based on the tests conducted the following conclusions have
been drawn:-
Stabilization of the soil using Terrazyme resulted in
significant increase in the Unconfined Compressive
Strength of the Black Cotton Soil upto 200%.
Duration of treatment of soil with Terrazyme played a
vital role in improvement of strength and soil treated
with Terrazyme for 7 days gives higher strength.
The optimum dosage of Terrazyme for improvement
of UCS of Black Cotton soil is 1ml/per 5kg of soil.
This eco-friendly enzyme i.e. Terrazyme can be
effectively used to increase the Unconfined
Compressive Strength of the Black Cotton soil.

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